Colours of the Damned: The Colour Orange
by Insarai Arys
Summary: Orange. Who give a dying duck about it? One man does. Who? I hear you ask? Read on to find out.


**Title:** Orange

**Author:** Icasscia

**Universe:** Bleach

**Theme/Topic:** Ikkaku and his colour

**Rating: **PG. Vague reference.

**Characters:** Ikkaku vague references to Kenpachi and Yumi

**Warnings/Spoilers: **Soul Society Arc for the fact he's mentioned and possibly the bount arc. Whatever. If it doesn't make sense you're not there yet.

**Word Count: **1013 words

**Time:** Twenty minutes

**Summary:** Orange. Who give a flying fuck about it? One man does. Who? I hear you ask? Read on to find out.

**Dedication:** Bekki, my friend for telling me to do something with colours.

**A/N:** My muse has a weird sense of humour. I was sat there, all ready and waiting to write Yellow and then my muse goes all "No! Write Orange" on my ass. So here I go. Orange.

**Distribution:** Warn me please but then you'll be free to take. Just a word of warning; please don't try and pass it off for your own work. It's unfair and it's not going to help you or me. I don't mind if you stick on the moon if you credit me somewhere even if it's really small at the end. Rant over...

* * *

**Orange: Ikkaku**

Orange. It's a fundamental part of a sunset and a sunrise and it's about endings and beginnings and more. Ikkaku is too all those things. He likes to rise with the sun and is more often that not down with it as well, if only for a brief nap. He is all encompassing and despite what others say about him, he demands attention because he just does. It's a fundamental part of Ikkaku that no-one can quite figure out expect maybe Yumichika and he sure as hell ain't telling anybody. Fruity bastard.

Orange is about powerful reminders and it's a colour which, to be frank, is frank. Ikkaku is a powerful reminder that what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger. After all, he emerged from one of the toughest districts, fought his way through the Academy and indeed blagged his way (with a small amount of head-slamming) into the division with the scary captain, with a nutcase for a lieutenant. And then proceeded to fight his way up the ranks before stopping at Third Seat. 'Cause thick as Ikkaku may be, he ain't dumb enough to take on Yachiru. Not in this life, nor the next. And even then he'd need a healthy amount of sake.

And Lord knows, the man has the tact of a fresh cowpat. He really doesn't meander around the point, he's blunt to the point of when Ikkaku tries to make a point, more often than not it's like being slammed around the head with a brick wall. Several times. Repeatedly. Really, it's just not part of who he is to be tactful. He'd be mad if he was.

And orange is the strength to live and the colour of refusals and it's the colour of pure human energy. Ikkaku's sheer bloody determination to live is so strong, there's a betting pool on how long he lasts in the current standings War on Aizen included. Two thousand Shinigami are currently involved and the most popular option is simply "Outlasts everyone currently living" which is quite remarkable when you realised the only other person to be blessed with such a title is Kenpachi. And that's only because the running thoughts are simply the man can't die. Those two men are the only ones Unohana or indeed anyone has ever seen walk away from a fight, from a fucking crater with gently smoking piles of what used to be several hundred Hollows or even Menos Grandes or something similar, with organs hanging out and blood leaking all over the joint and then to turn around and say "Yo! Who's up for round two?!" It's the consensus though Ikkaku will undoubtedly outlast anyone who cares to bet.

He lives to buck trends and whenever he can he'll refuse a mission unless he likes it. His other refusals though confuse most of Soul Society. Never in the history of Madarame Ikkaku has he ever been out on a date. Not even with the whores who live in the bars he so often frequents. For the longest time, it was considered a given that he was doing Ayasegawa Yumichika but those who suggested it found themselves on the end of an unpleasantly painful right hook before being encouraged in a beat down to keep their (wrong) opinions to their "Lil' fucking dumbass selves". Then people wondered if he had a wife or someone hidden away but nope. No ties. Apparently Ikkaku isn't in the mood to follow the rest of his division and sow his wild oats far and wide. His energy is pure, he loves to fight and he'll take it to the grave with him (if he even goes).

Orange is comforting in a strange way and it's warm and yet it's somehow dangerous and thrumming with power and it's something that is decidedly risky to play with. Ikkaku is comforting to his men in a way, because when they see his tall form, at the head of the battlefield, he gives them hope. Not that everything's going to turn out fine; God knows Eleventh division has lost enough men to Hollows to disregard that. No, he says to them, "We fight, we win, we go home, and we drink until we pass out in the streets. We lose, we fight harder, we win, we go home and we drink until we pass out in the streets. We die, we come back and do it all over again for the sheer hell of it, and we win, go home and we drink until we pass out in the streets. Because we can. So fuck Death." Ikkaku is warm and solid and just there because of his height and muscle and his presence. He can fill a room just by standing there. He is dangerous because he's a man with nothing to lose. He lives to fight and it's his philosophy that if he lives he lives to fight another day and if he loses then he dies because he ain't good enough and with any luck, he'll resurrect himself and be back again in time for tea and another crack at the person-slash-Hollow-slash-Espada-slash-Captain-slash-Yumi that killed him.

Orange is temperamental, like the fire it so often appears in. Ikkaku's temper is well-known. Many new recruits in the Eleventh division have felt the pain of Ikkaku's foot on their backside and Hōzukimaru's crack across their backs. It's an incentive to run harder, else there'll be worse to come. It's well known he is as lazy as banked embers, though, and will happily spend the morning fighting the hell out of whoever's stupid enough to challenge him and then spend the afternoon napping in a sunny patch somewhere. He changes though in a split second and it's not wise to provoke him. After all, fire burns and it's hard to tell what's beneath the orange embers.

Orange is total opposites. Lazy and spitfire, lived and died, buck the trends and follow in the footsteps of Black. Beginnings and endings. But so is Ikkaku. So everything is just fine. For him anyway.

* * *

Okay, as I said. Stressy muse. Don't ask. Review and tell me what you think.


End file.
